Revisiting the 1981 Nobel Prize to Roger Sperry, David Hubel, and Torsten Wiesel on the occasion of the centennial of the Prize to Golgi and Cajal

Chapter 13: the contributions of neurophysiology to clinical neurology an exercise in contemporary history

This chapter reviews a number of historical contributions of neurophysiology to clinical neurology in the hundred years that have elapsed since the publication of Sherrington's The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, a book generally considered the neurophysiologist's bible. In the past, many normal nervous functions have been inferred from disorderly functions in animals by neurophysiologists and in humans by clinical neurologists. If neurophysiologists have undoubtedly learned much from experimental lesions in animals, it has been the clinical neurologists who have obtained first-hand information on the effects of pathology on the functioning of the most complex and interesting of all nervous systems, that of man. Currently this division of labor is less clear, and convergent evidence from neurophysiology and clinical neurology alike has set our current knowledge about brain functions on a firm comparative foundation. This review of the relations between neurophysiology and clinical neurology reports contributions that have been recognized as "historical" by the scientific community because of their documented impact on the development of the entire field of neurosciences. The inclusion of further less famous neurophysiological achievements is justified by their potential influence on the advancement of neuroscience, as seen from the author's personal viewpoint.

Relationship between intelligence and the size and composition of the corpus callosum

We investigated the relationship between the morphology of the corpus callosum (CC) and IQ in a healthy sample of individuals in their late teens and early twenties. The relationship between the area of the CC, measured at the midline, and IQ showed regional differences. We observed that a higher estimated performance IQ was associated with smaller area in the posterior regions of the CC, a finding that differs from a positive association previously observed in a somewhat older adult sample. In contrast, higher estimated verbal IQ was associated with decreased fractional anisotropy of the genu, an anterior portion of the CC. Age effects were also observed such that older age was associated with larger CC area. Our results suggest that CC morphology is related to cognitive performance, which may have implications for clinical populations in whom CC morphology is atypical.